Shock Damage is one of the three elemental types of damage available from the School of Destruction, the other two being Frost and Fire Damage. Shock Damage produces a bolt of lightning that can, in higher level spells, arc from the original target to other opponents. In addition to damaging health, Shock Damage also drains the target's magicka—usually 50% of the Health damage dealt. The main advantage of shock damage over the other elements is that Storm Atronarchs aside, there are very few foes that have resistance let alone immunity to it. At the same time however, there are very few enemies that have explicit weakness to it. This makes it an ideal jack-of-all-trades element to specialize in. Also, unlike Fire and Frost spells, Shock spells have little to no travel time as it does not create a projectile, as they jump instantly from the caster to the target. This means you will not need to "lead" the target. Finally, this is the only element with a master spell that can be used at long range.